Dead Space: Rising
by NeonZangetsu
Summary: There is nothing more terrifying than death...except, when the dead start rising and try to kill you! NarutoxTayuya. Trapped on a vessel with thousands of corpses, a lone man tries to find the love off his life amidst the horror of space. Horror, romance. Character death. Dead Space crossover.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I return once again! As I'm sure you've all noticed, I've been on one helluva updating spree as of late, let my imagination run wild as I see fit. Originally, I had intented to create this particular story much sooner, but my computer crashed and I lost EVERYTHING. Thus, I was forced to recreate this from scratch as well as several others. My only regret is that I wasn't able to get it to ya'll sooner. But hey, better late than never, no?**

**That, and I haven't gotten all that many reviews for the latest chapter of "Vanguard of Shinobi." But hey, you win some and ya lose some! You didn't come here for that! You came for the next chapter! And I'm proud to present it! So, without further adue, I present you with...**

_"You think you're insane? Try living a day in my shoes!"_

_~?_

**Dead Space**

_"Mother! Fucker!"_

The man grunted, the sound tearing low and deep in his throat as he ripped his boot free from the...whatever the hell this thing was. A bloody gurgle greeted his efforts, the corpse-like creature twitching spasmodically when he took his foot away. Amazingly it tried to rise, despite lacking three of its four limbs. Another stomp of that equally heavy boot swiftly disabused it of that notion. Just to be certain, he cut it into tiny little pieces with his _chakra_ and blew them out of the nearest airlock.

Even then, he wasn't entirely certain the creature was dead. Damed things were hard as hell to kill and persistent as a motherfucker. It if weren't for his military-grade hardsuit...he almost shuddered to think what their bladed hands could've done to him. Honestly, all this coming-back-to-life crap was almost enough to make him regret taking on the job. But almost wasn't enough to make him turn around and stalk back to the hangar, collect his loses, and leave.

Not when _she _was still here.

It had seemed like such a bright idea at the time; now he was beginning to quesiton the validity of such a decision. Sneak aboard a powerless ship, his employer had said. Easy money, they said. Nothing will go wrong, they said. You'll just get in, get this Marker thing, and get out. Piece of cake, they said.

_Fucking liars!_

Ever since he'd set foot on the _USG Ishimura_ everything had gone to hell in a handbasket. And that was putting it nicely! But when you lived as long as he had, sometimes you had to take risks. Make mistakes. Perhaps that had been his first mistake; letting his guard down. When you thought you were invincible, you got sloppy. Sloppy, like letting her go on this damned venture without him.

Never once had he considered that his target would be this planet cracker, the very ship she was on. The one person who'd suffered through this twisted form of immortality with him throughout these ages and would likely live thrice as long again on and without him. _Tayuya._ He'd been a fool to let her go off on this planet-cracking crap. He knew it now. But it had seemed like such a good idea at the time and they'd needed money in more ways than one. You simply couldn't make money by assasination, not anymore.

Of course, there were always those willing to pay to have their enemies eliminated but those were jobs they weren't willing to take. They weren't _that_ desperate. He still had that recording of her, playing over and over in his mind.

_"Never should've come here. Never should've come here..._

So here he was, his own version of hell.

No sooner had he docked his single-man skiff than everything had gone straight to hell; he'd crashed landed, had been harassed by these creatures to no end. Ammo was scarce. Medkits even scarcer. These creatures weren't the sort you wanted to take down in hand to hand combat, not with those god awful blades for hands. As if mocking his very luck a nearby vent chose that moment to rumble. Something was hiding up in there and he very much doubted it was friendly. Any survivors he'd encountered on this ship had been practically nonexistent, found in the form of audio or video recordings.

"C'mon mother fucker." he muttered grimly, raising his battered pulse rifle. "It's wabbit season."

His finger was just tightening on the trigger when the door to his right whooshed open and something slammed into him. That should've been his first warning; necromorphs didn't know how to open doors. But he was locked firmly in an adrenaline rush and struck without thinking.

"Ow!"

Needless to say, mistakes were made.

A pained grunt greeted his efforts as the butt of his gun slammed into someone's head. A human grunt. Human head. The man froze as he heard the telltale clicking of a rifle being cocked and loaded. He flung an arm before his face, the shield flaring into existence in response. Bullet's ricocheted in nearly every direction, spattering harmlessly offf the barrier's zone. He caught sight of them then through the V-shaped sit in his visor and nearly laughed at the absurdity of it all. Survivors. A man and a woman. The latter was looking at him as though he'd right and truly seen a ghost; quite possible, given the circumstances. The former, appeared to be more baffled than anything else.

Then the man-a soldier?-raised his gun again. The mercenary swore.

"Don't you fucking move-

_"Whoa whoa whoa!"_

What followed was a lot of gun-pointing and more shouting than was strictly neccessary. Neither was willing to listen-or trust-the other, the circumstances of their arrival too conspicuous to remain unquestioned. But a red herring or not, neither seemed willing to waste more ammunition in this coffin of a ship. At least, until the black man tried to shoot at him again.

"Hammond, don't!" The woman yanked down the barrel of the gun before more shots could be fired. "He's not one of them!"

"Fuck that, I'm not taking any chance_-oof!"_

Once more the man grunted, this time as the merc's hardened helmet smacked into his unprotected forehead. The poor fellow folded like a wet paper bag, hissing in pain.

"While I appreciate someone with _common sense_ as much as the next man, _who __in the fuck're you?"_ Once the mercenary would've balked at such language, but a certain redhead and her foul mouth had rubbed off on him. Besides, he wasn't exactly in a pleasant mood at the moment. Must've been the zombies. It certainly wasn't the lovely environment! "I've

"Kendra." the woman introduced herself, holding one arm at her side. Suddenly, her gaze strayed to the hissing soldier on dck. "And this is-

"Hammond." he already knew that much from earlier.

"Name's Naruto." the man grunted, his helmet finally collapsing to expose a worn, whiskered face and blearly blue eyes. "Mind tell me what the _hell _is going on here?"

**A/N: There you have it! My very first Dead Space crossover. Betcha can't guess what inspired me to take up the pen and tackle this universe head on. Hmm? The quote shoulda made it obvious but needless to say, this is going to be as horrifying as it is amusing. As another note Issac DOES exist in this fic; please recall that throughout the game he is more often than not separated from both Hammond and Kendra. But what of Naruto? Is Tayuya alive? If so, will he reach her in time? We'll have to see...**

**So...In the Immortal Words of Altas...**

**...Make us Whole-gah! Review, Would You Kindly?!**

**R&amp;R! =D**


	2. Whole

**A/N: Alright ladies and gentlemen, I'm alive! I've been better given all the problems I've been going through, but I'm still breathing. Still kicking. I've been on an update craze as of late as I'm sure you all noticed; its just my way of coping with life atm.**

**To be honest, I've been really depressed. The life of a single man is not a happy one, certainly not after you've lost a loved one. Now, I won't get into the business of being cheated on, but yup, it sucks.**

**I've actually been in a really dark place for the last few days. Like, the really dark, not eating kind.**

**Add to that the relative state of my awful job and the school bills that keep racking up, and I'm in a bit of a tight spot at the moment. Yet here I am, fighting this damned depression, not giving into despair. To all my readers/reviewers who have encourage me in this time, I say this:**

**Thank you all for you support, and here's hoping I make it through the rough road ahead of me! *Raises glass in a toast* Long live Fanfiction! And in case my health goes south...Love ya'll!**

**Plenty of scary and darkly amusing bits to come!**

_"Make us whole..._

_"Nope."_

_"But..._

_"Nope. All kinds of nope. WITH AN EXTRA HELPING OF NOPE!"_

_~?_

**Whole**

_"Make us whole."_

"Oi, did you hear that?"

_"No."_ Hammond growled flatly, refusing to look back at the body-littered corridor they'd just vacated, refusing to looking away from the vents that had spawned those...things. The soldier was looking positively paranoid by now the shinobi thought-jumping at shadows, claiming to see things that weren't there. Naruto didn't have the gall to contest him anymore; because he was starting to see, too. Rather, hear them. It had started only yesterday, snatches of sound that didn't quite make sense, gibberish he couldn't comprehend.

But he understood this. He could hear it, and it sounded so close, so very close...

"Hear what?" Kendra asked, frowning. "I didn't hear anything."

"It sounded like a whisper."

_"Whole..._

Naruto still hearing those eerie words, rounded the corner, and nearly walked headlong into a dead woman. Pale eyes stared back at him from a heart-shaped face, framed by dark locks he knew all too well. Despite his best efforts not to panic, he instinctively palmed a rasengan and was about to thrust it through her chest when he realized it. He _recognized_ her. It was impossible not to. She'd loved him once, and a long time ago, she had been all his world before his little red goddess.

But, seeing her again, his heart skipped a beat. The spirallling sphere guttered out in his hand, just like his hope.

"You...?"

Now, he knew at once he was well and truly hallucinating now-had to be!-because Hinata was dead. She'd been lost during the war, long ago. He'd watched her die, gored on Madara's hand. So, whatever tricks this hell was playing on him, he knew they-she!-weren't real. That didn't make it any less disturbing. She stared back at him, the picture of calm and serenity, not a mark on her. So real...

"You're dead."

Those eerie eyes stared back at him, placidly, as he tried to pass his hand through her. Christ, he could feel her face...!

_"Make us whole, Naruto."_

The immortal swore softly and kept walking, ignoring the illusion. It had to be. Had to be. So intent was he on his trek that he failed to notice the wet sound of _something_ clamoring overhead. He should've heard it deep in the vents, should have realized, but his mind was elsewhere.

_"Bwoargh!"_

**"JESUS MOTHA~!"**

They never saw the necromorphs drop down from the ceiling until it was too late; by the time Naruto did, trapped in that frenzied state, it was already over. Kendra, being the closest to him, escaped only through sheer proximity. As the beast dropped down onto her back she yelped, the sound momentarily breaking him from his stupor. That was all it took.

A Rasengan-clad hand shot out, pulverizing the beast's torso like jelly.

"Damnit, get off of me!"

Hammond didn't fare anywhere near as well. Not only was he further away at the rear, but his aggressor had him by the neck, chewing down his jugular with frenzied hunger even as he screamed, stabbing. With a wet gurgle, the soldier dropped to the ground, carrying the creature with him in the gross parody of an embrace. By the time Naruto and Kendra had emptied their clips into the beast and its tail, the man was gone. With an eerie gurgle, his killer joined him in true death.

Kendra didn't take it well.

Covered in blood and quivering from the ordeal, she began to panic. The calm, collected, determined woman she'd been shattered into a thousand pieces. Hyperventilating, she gawped down at her bloody hands, staring at them in stark disbelief, her breath coming in short, sharp gasps. Her rifle fell out of her hands, clattering harshly to the floor. Her body followed soon thereafter.

"Oh god," she cried, "Oh christ, oh jesus...I didn't...he...it wasn't supposed to be like this...

Naruto groaned. Great._ 'This is the last thing I need!'_

"Alright, alright, just breathe." he soothed, awkwardly rubbing her arm. "Breathe. Focus on the sound of my voice. In."

"Out." she replied shakily.

"In?"

"Ouuuuuut." a shuddering breath pused past her lips.

"Thatta girl." Patting her head, the mad ninja forcibly willed himself to focus. "Now, where the hell are we going?" Truth be told he was hopelessly lost here; with so many locked doors and legions of the undead actively trying to devour them, a safe zone was the next best thing at this point. He just needed a moment to rest and get his thoughts together; just a second, nothing more. Every second spent down here, felt more and more like his brain was rotting, tearing itself to pieces.

"Th-The bridge." Kendra whimpered as he helped her back to her feet. "We need to restore communications."

"Right. Sounds good."

She didn't budge.

"Um...this is going to sound all kinds of awkward, but...

The blond blinked. "But what?"

...I can't move my legs."

Naruto sighed. She was scared stiff. "Of course you can't"

The brief silence didn't last long, however.

Somewhere in the distance, a low roar resounded. Grabbing his charge by the arm, the battered blond turned to depart-

"Time to go."

-and smacked right into the door they'd just come from.

"Kendra, for fucks sake! I thought you hacked this?!"

"The damn door's jammed!" she swore.

"Well, fix it!"

"I-I can't!" Trembling fingers fumbled at the keys, unable to input the necessary commands. "You do it!"

"I! AM NOT! A! FUCKING ENGINEER!"

* * *

_(Deeper in the bowels of the Ishimura..)_

_"Achoo!"_

Isaac Clarke sneezed harshly from his hiding place in the morgue.

_"BLOARGH!"_

Unfortunately, that sneeze drew a horde of necromorphs down on top of him. The esteemed engineer took one look at them, checked his ammo, and made a decision. Fight or flight.

**"...!"**

He chose flight and _got the hell out of there_.

* * *

_(Back with Naruto...)_

Five minutes later, and Naruto saw the hallucination _again._

This time, it was Tayuya.

She was waiting for him when the elevator opened, the picture of benevolence. His finger twitched on the trigger before he could reconsider. Her body twitched, a red hole opening in her stomach. His first reaction was one of guilt; but that guilt turned to disgusted disbelief when she didn't start swearing at him like a sailor. The _real _Tayuya, the one whom he'd split the very essence of a goddess with, would've cussed him out for that, blowing a hole in her stomach.

This one, she just stared back at him and smiled.

_"Make us whole, Naruto..."_

Despite that knowledge the fear gripped him; fear that he was too late, that he was seeing a dead woman, just like Hinata. Immortal didn't necessarily mean you couldn't die. It merely meant they were immune to the ravages of time. They could most certainly be harmed, injured, and even slain, despite their devastating abilities. He didn't see Kendra's expression, but he could feel her fear as he began mumbling:

"Not there, not there, not there!"

_"Make us whole..._

"Nope."

He had to give the illusion credit, it knew how to look hurt.

_"But..._

"Nope. All kinds of nope. WITH AN EXTRA HELPING OF NOPE!"

"Are you..alright?"

"Yep. Sure. Just seeing my dead ex and my current one. I'm not crazy. Not at all." he chuckled weakly, rubbing his face. "No no no no, I'm not the crazy one here, I'm not even the bloody protagonist." A pause. "And I think I just broke the fourth wall." the laughter trailed off into gibberish. "Heh. Hehehe. Hahahaha...oh fuck all kinds of duck. Just breathe, breathe...gotta calm down."

Kendra looked at him as though he'd grown another head. Perhaps he had. Voices in his mind, hallucinations...oh, this didn't bode well. At all. He'd been trying to ignore it for the last day now, but they just kept coming and now they were mocking him openly, actively causing him to wonder at his mental state of being. Because, like it or not...

...he was losing his mind.

* * *

_(Meanwhile...)_

Elsewhere, another survivor was also beginning to doubt her grasp on reality. With a twist.

The difference, one might ask? Simple.

She was actually enjoying herself.

"I! Am! Death!"

Each word found itself accompanied by the angry bark of a shotgun; the deadly shots ripping great tearing holes in the bodies of her attackers. She looked like a scarlet god of war-bathed in the blood of her enemies-her loose scarlet hair flowing freely behind her in a bloody wake as she laughed. There was something very, very, _VERY _wrong with this girl, from her battered grey rig to the delight she took in dismembering the once living crew of the Ishimura. She enjoyed every moment of it.

_"Make us whole..._

Except that.

She didn't even look at the faux Naruto before blasting the hallucination into atoms.

"Shut up, you fake!"

In her mind's eye she could see the lines that had led her up to this point; the argument, the fight, the need for money...

But _Tayuya_ was clever.

She had years upon years-centuries, even-to perfect her craft, to master her skills. Dismembering rabid alien corpses was barely worthy of that first arched eyebrow. The jump scares, now those were worthy of cussing like a sailor. Damn things just loved to scare her! Ah, but the underestimated her! You couldn't drive someone crazy if they were already off their rocker, and Tayuya was well and truly this way for a long time. Reviving in a body of ash, being given a proper form and a REAL body, then half the vitality of a Goddess shared with her soul-mate.

Yup, that was enough to drive someone well and truly mad.

Still grinning, she pumped another round into one of the corpses, giggling madly as the necromorph gurgle and twitched. Served the bugger right for popping up and spooking her like that.

She supposed having flesh and bone again DID mean you could fear for your life, after all. Honestly it was hard to remember she didn't have an immortal, invincible body anymore, sometimes...

"Um...I think you got them all."

Growling, she fired one last shot into the bloodied corpse.

"Quiet, blondie! They're dead when _I _say they're dead"

Her charge cringed slightly, cowering in the wake of the redhead's wrath.

"Okay...

Nicole Brennan, a Senior Medical Officer of the USG _Ishimura _and thus far a complete and total waste of space in her opinion, followed after her like a lost little lamb. Tayuya was beginning to wish she'd just let the bitch commit suicide. It certainly would've made her task that much easier. But noooooo, she just had to listen to her conscience. Damn Naruto for influencing her...

_"Blargh!"_

And here we go again!

_"OH FUCK OFF!"_

Discarding her spent weapon, she placed a flute to her lips and began to play.

**A/N: So, I've been going over reviews, and an anonymous reviewer said something that really resonated with me. I love to write. But sometimes, I feel that this gift owns me, rather than I, owning it. Its like a beast inside me, this urge to create, but I can't control it very well, which results in a LOT of new stories. So as of last night, and continuing throughout the week, I'm purging stories that won't be continued, or works that no one enjoys anymore.**

**Take the latest update for Undertaker. Almost nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nadda. Only a meager _three_ reviews at this time for almost five thousand words and a week's worth of work. I don't know if its my mail client being stupid or what, but if not...that's kinda depressing. I mean, I don't fault people for not reviewing and all, but I write this stuff FOR you guys. Not me. I love to bring the joy of literary works to people, but...**

**...it kinda hurts when no one tells me what they think, ya know?**

**Anywho, let me know which ones you feel should be continued, before its too late! Don't worry, many of the major ones will remain, but anything from 2008-2009 is likely going out the window with all the rest of the trash, never to be seen again. This may seem sudden I know, but I'm only purging the forgotten fics that no one cares for. Fear not, its not going to be immediate, but it WILL happen, I simply wanted to get this out as a forewarning.**

**This will be of very few new stories I plan to release, god willing. If I have an idea, I plan to make it a damn good one before I just toss it out there, as I devote myself to my other works, soon to number into the hundreds, and potentially dozens as I whittle them down. I need to reassess why I want to write, for the joy of it, and I can't do that by letting you guys down with old, crappy stories I wrote in my early days.**

**LET THE NEW ERA BEGIN! Also yes, I'm introducing a new character here...**

**So, in the Immortal Words of Atlas...**

**...Review, Would You Kindly?**

**And of course, enjoy the preview! 'Tis a bit of humor in this otherwise dark story..**

**(Preview)**

_"FLEE! FLEE FOR YOUR LIIIIIIIIVES!_

_"Was that...?"_

_Tayuya blinked, balking now as an orange and black streak bolted past her, a horde of necromorphs slavering at his heels. By comparison, the beasts didn't give her so much as a passing glance. Her helmet unfolded a bit, exposing baffled brown eyes as she stared down the corridor in which the human bolt had gone. She almost guffawed as the Brute turned and thundered after him. Then she saw the woman he was carrying and all that humor dried up into furious feminine wrath._

_"OI!"_

_"FLEE!"_

_Somehow, he sounded even more terrified than before._

**R&amp;R~! =D**


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